Frequent Questions

What is the Orphan Sources Initiative?

The Orphan Sources Initiative was an early-2000’s program that sought to mitigate the many reports of “orphan” radioactive sources, or radioactive sources that are lost, stolen, or abandoned. The EPA’s Orphan Sources Initiative helped states recognize, retrieve, and safely store and dispose of these radioactive sources before they endangered workers and the public; the program is now in the hands of the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD).

While the EPA no longer currently runs the Orphan Sources Initiative, CRCPD hosts an open call every year to share the cost of disposing of such sources and collect abandoned radioactive sources to mitigate risk to human health and the environment. The Source Collection and Threat Reduction (SCATR) program is currently supported by the Department of Energy.

For more information about the SCATR Program, visit SCATR on CRCPD.org.